A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the classified USSF-432 mission for the U.S. Space Force from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 7:48 p.m. EST on Friday, Nov. 6, Space.com reported. Neither SpaceX nor the Space Force has said what the rocket carried.
Related: Space Force Hires Viasat for Up to $450 Million to Run Golden Dome Data Hub.
What happened
The first stage landed on the droneship “Of Course I Still Love You” in the Pacific Ocean, completing the eighth flight for booster 1095, Space.com reported. SpaceX cut its webcast about 10 minutes into the flight, shortly after the landing, according to Space.com.
USSF-432 was the 119th Falcon 9 launch of 2026 and the rocket’s 14th national-security flight this year, Space.com reported.
What may have launched
Unconfirmed: NextSpaceflight.com wrote that the payload is possibly a batch of classified low-Earth-orbit satellites for the Space Force’s Space Based Sensing and Targeting portfolio, built on SpaceX’s Starshield satellite design, Space.com reported. The site based that on rocket stage drop zones matching earlier Starlink Group 15 launches. The Space Force has not confirmed the payload.
Starshield is a military version of SpaceX’s Starlink broadband network, which has more than 11,000 active satellites, according to Space.com.
Why it matters
The launch adds to a busy year of national-security missions as the Pentagon expands its space-based sensing and its Golden Dome missile-defense plans. More coverage is in Military and on the Military Deployments Tracker.
Sources
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